Apprenticed to a Shadow
by N B Higham
Summary: Naruto's anger boils over after he fails the academy for the second time, and he yells at Iruka, and leaves the academy in anger, his mind clouded with anger. This single event, changes everything.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

As Naruto stared down at the dirt at his feet, he felt a variety of emotions at the fact that he, yet again, had failed to pass the Konoha Ninja Academy's graduation test, for the third time. No one that ever failed three times ever became a ninja.

Twirling his foot around in the dirt solemnly, Naruto couldn't help but feel jealous of his classmates. They all had families and parents to help them train, and to go home to. Naruto had no one, he never had anyone.

Naruto's mind began to wander, and he reflected back on his moment of anger when he had failed to pass the graduation test.

***Flashback***

Iruka looked helplessly at Naruto, "I'm so sorry Naruto, but your performance is just so low that I can't even pass you. I'm sorry Naruto, you fail."

Naruto looked up at Iruka with tears in his eyes, 'I failed again, I always fail.'

For a brief second, Naruto's sorrow turned into rage, and in a flash, he was running out of the examination room, back into the classroom, to have Iruka and Mizuki chase after him.

Turning to face his sensei, Naruto screamed in front of the whole class, "For years Iruka-sensei, I waited and waited hoping that I would get a sensei who would really help me, and actually train me! All of my other sensei at the academy ignored me, or taught me wrong things, or sent me out of class all the time so that I couldn't learn anything! But you were different to me! You let me stay in class, you listened when I had questions, and yet even when I try harder than every single person in this room to pass the DAMN test, you still never helped me figure out WHY I can't do it! Everyone else has a family to go home to, to help them, and I go home to an empty apartment every day, knowing that I NEVER get any help to learn! You criticize me and tell me that I need to try harder in class! I stopped skipping class over half a year ago, I devoted all of my time to passing this test! I try SO hard to be a ninja Iruka-sensei, and yet NO ONE ever helps me!"

After his tirade, Naruto left the room in tears, but Iruka got up to chase after him almost as soon as he got out of the room. Mizuki was left in the room to try to retain order in the classroom. Most of the girls in the class were reduced to tears at Naruto's speech, most of them never gave any thought to what the bright and cheery knucklehead went through, most of them didn't even know he was an orphan.

While everyone in the room was impacted by Naruto's speech, there was one who was impacted much more than anyone else in the room was, Sasuke Uchiha. 'Naruto is an orphan like me? He goes home to an empty house, the same way that I do.'

It would be 20 minutes before Iruka returned to class, quickly telling Mizuki that he had not been able to find any sign of Naruto. Mizuki chuckled lightly to try and raise Iruka's mood, "Maybe escaping ANBU after his pranks gave Naruto more skills in stealth than we realized."

This set something off in Iruka's head that would bother him as he pondered what exactly Naruto had meant by the fact that he spent almost all of his time trying to pass the exam, yet he couldn't do a henge or Bunshin. And how exactly, was an academy student able to evade ANBU pursuit for hours inside of Konoha?

***Back to Naruto***

Naruto kicked aimlessly at the dirt while he thought about how entirely mad he was in that one moment, it was as if every fiber of his being just wanted to lash out at someone or something. Naruto sat kicking aimlessly for over an hour, before someone came up to him.

"Hey Naruto." The voice startled Naruto, and as he looked up quickly, he recognized Sasuke was standing in front of him, and talking to him. Confused, Naruto replied, "Umm hi Sasuke. Ugh, I'm sorry about the whole episode I had in front of the class, I was just so… so…" Naruto looked around as he tried to think of the word to describe how he felt.

"Angry."

Naruto glanced questioningly at Sasuke for a second, "Yeah, really angry. Iruka-sensei pretends to care about me, but he never really helped me any, he never actually did anything."

Sasuke was silent for a second, "Is it true that you don't have any one to go home to?"

Naruto was really getting confused, Sasuke never talked to anyone, let alone him, "Yeah, my parents died in the Kyuubi Attack, so I have lived alone ever since the orphanage kicked me out."

Sasuke was quiet again, before inquiring, "Why do you pretend to be such an idiot Naruto? You wear that orange jumpsuit, and you pretend to have no cares in the world, but ever since…"

Sasuke stopped talking for a second, and coughed kind of awkwardly, "Never mind, I will see you around Naruto." Just like that Sasuke was gone, leaving Naruto to wonder what exactly it was that had gotten into Sasuke, while he wondered to himself, how Sasuke had seen through his mask.

With nothing else to do, Naruto left to go home, and in a few minutes he had walked inside his apartment and tore out of his clothes before laying down to try and sleep. With nothing else to do for the day, even though it was really early, Naruto just felt exhausted.

'Why do I wear my mask?' Naruto had never really acknowledged the fact that he really did wear a mask around other people. That mask, the happy go lucky Naruto who just wanted to get attention, was that who he was? Or was that who he wanted to be? And if that WAS who he wanted to be, why be that person? All that being happy and go lucky had gotten him was a lot of negative attention.

As Naruto lay drifting off to sleep, he had a thought, 'What if I just try being who I should be? Do I even want to be Hokage?' Naruto got up out of his bed, glancing at his alarm clock to see that nearly three hours had gone by while all he could do was think, sleep was not going to come tonight.

Wanting to get out for fresh air, Naruto headed to the roof, to lay down and look at the stars that were now up in the sky. Finding a comfortable position, Naruto lay down to look at the stars and think.

'I failed the academy exam for the third time, and no one has ever passed after a third failure. Maybe I should give up on being a ninja, if I couldn't even learn the most basic things, how could I ever hope to be a ninja?'

***Iruka***

After the examinations were over with, and everyone but Naruto had passed, Iruka took the results to the Hokage's office. This could have easily have been done by someone else, but Iruka had specific reasons for taking them himself.

He was let in the office by the Hokage's secretary, and with a respectful bow, he began the standard overview of the results. "Students will be listed in order of performance, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akamichi, Kiba Inuzuka, Shikamaru Nara…"

After finishing listing the 26 people who passed, Iruka looked up to see Hiruzen staring at him intensely. "So Naruto failed again did he?" Hiruzen took a deep draft off of his pipe to try and relax his nerves a little.

Iruka gulped, "Yes, and that is mostly why I came myself, to try and talk to you about Naruto. His scores are horrible, yet his effort is up there with Sasuke, or Sakura maybe. How is it that someone who can't even perform Henge or Bunshin can create his own PHYSICAL Henge, and have high enough stealth skills to evade ANBU for hours after his pranks?"

Iruka stopped for a second to drop the folder about the graduates on the Hokage's desk, "I just don't even understand it Hokage-sama. Naruto told me that his education in the academy had also been sabotaged? That his previous sensei had refused to teach Naruto, or taught him wrong info?"

Hiruzen sighed, "Yes that is true, many still harbor harsh feelings towards Naruto due to the Kyuubi he holds within himself. And because of the Kyuubi, Naruto has exceptionably large chakra coils that could very likely equal my own, Iruka. For that reason, Naruto's chakra control is so terrible that he can't perform even the most basic techniques."

Iruka passed back and forth before the Hokage, "So why has Naruto not received special training? With such raw power, if you could train his control, he could be a god-like shinobi from brute power alone. And the amazing stealth skills he has developed are very worthy of note. Today Naruto simply vanished from my sight in a matter of seconds, and I was unable to find him, wearing a bright orange jumpsuit even."

Hiruzen rubbed his temple, "The council deems him unworthy of special training, and as such he cannot receive special treatment, like in the case of Rock Lee, where Maito Gai personally sponsored the boy, after showcasing that while Lee could not traditionally pass the academy, this was over looked due to his raw taijutsu prowess, and his dedication."

Iruka was baffled, "But sir, Naruto's stealth skills alone are worthy of such treatment, not to mention the fact that he has such raw power, that he could supposedly match you, Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen nodded, "Be that as it may Iruka, a jounin would have to personally sponsor for him to receive training. No one has been willing to do so for Naruto."

Iruka seemed deflated for a second, before he responded, "If he is currently in the village Hokage-sama, could you have Kage brought here? I have a favor to cash in with him, that I think I feel like cashing in right now."

Hiruzen smiled at Iruka, 'Now that was unexpected, but it could work. While discouraged, apprenticeships are still allowed, and if I could get Naruto apprenticed, then Iruka may have just found the only way for Naruto to still become a shinobi.'

Within ten minutes, Kage was standing before Hiruzen, standing beside Iruka. "ANBU Kage reporting for duty Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen waved his hand, "Take off your mask Daizen."

The newly identified Daizen seemed taken aback, "Sir? Am I being punished?" The Hokage had not seen Daizen's face, nor called him by that name since he had put on the ANBU mask nearly four years ago, because Daizen had joined ANBU as soon as he turned 18, right when he became a jounin.

Slowly, Daizen pulled off his mask and set it down on the Hokage's desk.

"Do not worry Daizen, you are not being punished for anything, in fact, I have a favor to ask of you."

"Anything that you wish of me, Hokage-sama." Daizen spoke without any hesitation, if the Hokage had a request, he would fulfill that request.

"I want you to sponsor the training of Naruto Uzumaki, and be his personal sensei. Due to certain conditions, Naruto cannot pass the academy conventionally, but I do want him to become a ninja, so I would like for you to take over his training. For all of the time until Naruto becomes a chuunin, I want you to train him. You will be temporarily suspended from ANBU, but I assure you it is not permanent. I want you to train Naruto to hone the stealth skills that he has demonstrated, and to train his chakra control until he has the control that would be deemed acceptable for a chuunin."

Daizen nodded, "Yes Hokage-sama, I will do as you wish. I have heard of the Uzumaki boy's stealth skills from the griping of other ANBU, due to their inability to track him down."

Hiruzen nodded, "However, you are the resident stealth expert in Konoha, and as such I am assigning you to this task. Tomorrow morning I want you, and you too Iruka, to meet here at 9 AM so that we can go as a group to speak to Naruto."

Iruka smiled widely, 'I am sorry I failed your training in the academy Naruto, I hope that this makes it up to you.'

Author's Note: I know, I KNOW! Another new story when I have only just gotten back to writing Fan Fiction! I can't help it, I had over a year where I made myself give up writing Fan Fiction to focus on my own original work, and I have been itching to get this down and post it, and see what you guys think of it.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto was confused, to say the very least. There was hardly ever anyone at his apartment, let alone at 7am, like his alarm clock said. With a small groan, Naruto swung himself out of bed and headed towards his door, again hearing a loud knocking.

Irritated at being awoken at such an early time, Naruto yelled out, "I'm coming, just stop knocking already!" Closing the distance to his front door in a sleepy haze, Naruto opened the door, only to be surprised by who it was.

"Iruka-sensei? Umm, why are you here?" Naruto was beyond confused, as he tried to clear his sleep clogged mind.

Iruka seemed a little embarrassed to be at Naruto's, especially so soon after Naruto had all but screamed in his face the day before, "Well Naruto I came here to tell you that you are going to need to be at the Hokage's office in 2 hours for a meeting."

Naruto was confused, "A- a meeting about what?" Naruto was very concerned about what it could be. 'Do- do they know what I did?'

***Flash back***

Naruto was glad to finally lay back and think, and look up at the stars above his head. He was almost drifting off to sleep, before he heard someone jump down beside him. Startled by the sound, Naruto jumped up to his feet, and whirled to face the newcomer, only to see that it was his sensei, Mizuki.

"Umm, Mizuki-sensei, why are you here?" Naruto was curious to find out why Mizuki was just all of a sudden showing up at his apartment, especially since it was very late at night as well. 'This is weird, Mizuki-sensei has never really talked to me before.'

Mizuki gave a Naruto a wide smile, "Well Naruto, I came with great news! After talking it over with Iruka, we decided that you did deserve another shot at passing the exams! I had a test of your abilities set up. All you have to do, is sneak into the Hokage's residence, and steal a scroll that is in the Hokage's private study, and bring it to the field where we used to do survival exercises."

Naruto beamed a smile at Mizuki, and outwardly he said, "Sure Mizuki-sensei, I can do that!" But as he tried to play the part of his usual self, inwardly he was not fooled by Mizuki's supposed "test." It all seemed too suspicious, even to Naruto. 'There is no way that I would be being informed about some test at this time of the night.'

Mizuki's smile widened, "Good Naruto, but when you have the scroll, you will have to also learn one jutsu from the scroll to completely pass the test. If you cannot demonstrate to me that you have learned something, I'm sorry, but I would have to fail you. Now, I want you to begin right away, the security is set up, but just remember, don't get caught! Now good luck!"

And just like that Mizuki was gone, and Naruto was left trying to decide what he should do. 'On one hand, if Mizuki is lying about this, why would he be? And is he is lying, I should tell Hokage-Jiji! But if I do that, and the test is real, I might have wasted too much time to actually steal the scroll!'

With a weighing of the pros and cons, Naruto finally decided that his best option was to attempt to steal the scroll unnoticed, and hope that the test was real.

***45 Minutes Later***

It was simple enough to steal the scroll unnoticed, there was only 1 ANBU that was stationed to guard the room where the scroll had been, and only 2 ANBU outside the Hokage residence. They had been easy enough to sneak by, as they had a very simple and routine pattern that they used to patrol the perimeter of the building.

Though it was not only his stealth skills that Naruto used to stage an elaborate plan to hopefully steal the scroll. There was one shop in Konoha that always let him in and sold him things for a fair price, Konoha's House of Debauchery. They mostly sold cheap fake magic tricks to civilians, but there a few things in the store that had caught Naruto's eye the first time he went into the shop, and that he always went back to buy.

It was a simple enough matter to utilize the gap that was left between patrols, and sneak into the building. After moving through the building to the office, Naruto hung outside the doorway so that the ANBU had not noticed him, and to distract them to leave the office, Naruto pulled his one of his best friends out of a pouch sewed into his pants, a firecracker. Made and sold at the Konoha House of Debauchery.

Sending chakra into the seal to ignite the timer that would in turn set off the firework, Naruto tossed it down the hallway and through an open doorway that was nearly 20 feet away. Tucking himself behind a large potted plant, Naruto counted to 5, and heard the firecracker go off.

Known as what was called a "nine bang," the firecracker let off 9 loud auditory booms and bright flashes. Usually Naruto used them to either escape from pursuit after a prank, but this was a special occasion, so Naruto used the expensive firework.

It performed it's job quite well, as the ANBU that was inside of the office let out a cry as he was severally deafened and blinded by the exceptionally loud firecracker. It was at that moment that there was another, much larger explosion outside of the building as well, a timed explosive that Naruto had set to 3 minutes to give him time to get inside of the building and set up the 9 bang.

Knowing that one of the ANBU that was outside would go check out the explosion outside, and another would have to go inside to check on what was going on with the nine bang, Naruto began to move fast. He broke into a sprint, and ran inside of the Hokage's study, to find the ANBU member that was inside was moving around hazily as he tried to get his bearings.

Leaving the ANBU no time to regain his senses, Naruto moved over to where the scroll that Mizuki had described was set up on a stand in the corner of the room, and grabbed the large scroll before pulling out a green cord from his pockets and using it to strap the scroll to his back.

Before the ANBU member who was outside reached the office, Naruto was already gone, and the ANBU member that had been hit by the nine bang had not seen nor heard anything at all.

A safe distance away from the Hokage's Residence, Naruto unslung the scroll from his back and set it down in front of him, Mizuki's suspicious test just seemed too weird to Naruto, so before he decided to take the scroll to Mizuki, Naruto wanted to get a good look at whatever was inside.

It took only a few seconds to read 'Scroll of Seals' and only a few more to read 'Do Not Attempt To Use Any Jutsu Held Within This Scroll.' Now Naruto may not be the brightest person in the world, but he was by no means stupid. He had seen through Mizuki's test, and he sure as hell knew that what he had just done was a crime, and that Mizuki had to have other reasons for having Naruto take the scroll to him.

But it was for that reason that Naruto knew he could not take the scroll to Mizuki. But he could not come clean about it to anyone else either, and try to have Mizuki arrested, because what proof was there?

If Naruto went to even the Hokage with the scroll, and tried to tell them that Mizuki had made him steal the scroll, what proof, or reason to believe him would there be? This left Naruto with two real options. One, take the scroll and sneak back into the Hokage's Residence and try to leave it there so that if he got caught, at least he would have returned it. Or the second option, that a little voice in Naruto's head told him to do, was to keep the scroll.

Who would ever even suspect that Naruto would steal such a scroll? 'If I keep the scroll, and hide it well enough that no one will find it, how could I possibly get in trouble? And Mizuki has to have a reason for wanting the scroll, so maybe I should just keep it myself?'

Naruto snuck back to his apartment, avoiding anyone and everyone to make sure that no one saw that he had a giant scroll strapped to his back. It was not difficult to remain unseen at this time of the night, there were few people about, and any ninja that went by never spared so much as a glance at the orange clad troublemaker.

Upon returning home back to his apartment, Naruto knew he had to find somewhere to hide the scroll incase Mizuki tried to steal it from him, because Mizuki would know that Naruto had the scroll. But Naruto knew that Mizuki could not risk telling anyone he knew that he has the scroll, because that would uncover his own involvement, not to mention he would not get the scroll.

Looking at the giant scroll, Naruto knew it would be next to impossible to hide such a large thing anywhere in his apartment. So Naruto made a decision, pulling out nearly half a dozen pieces of paper, Naruto opened the scroll and began to copy everything down. When he was done, he would destroy the original scroll and instead hide his copies of everything throughout his apartment.

***Present Time***

"It's going to be really important Naruto, so make sure you are on time. I know that you may be really sad about not passing the academy test, but I have found another way for you to become a ninja of Konoha Naruto. Just make sure you are there in two hours Naruto, you are going to meet your future sensei that will train you to become a ninja."

With that, Iruka left in a hurry, leaving a partially stunned and relieved Naruto standing in his doorway staring at the space where Iruka had been, 'Another way to become a ninja? That is what Mizuki had said, but Iruka-sensei said that I was going to meet my sensei? And I don't think that Iruka-sensei would lie to me.'

Naruto closed the door and walked towards his bathroom. If he really was going to go meet the Hokage and his new sensei, a shower was definitely in order. No sense in leaving a bad first impression on whoever it was that was going to be his sensei.

And if he was going to be his sensei, Naruto knew that this was a special case. Naruto had heard about Rock Lee, a student a year ahead of him that couldn't use chakra and had become a ninja without passing the graduation test because he had been sponsored by a jounin named Maito Gai.

'This must mean that I am being sponsored by someone too. I can't believe that someone is actually taking time and putting their name on the line to sponsor me, most people won't ever even talk to me.'

With that less than cheerful thought, Naruto began to get ready for the meeting, and as he set aside clothes to wear, Naruto decided to forgo the usual jumpsuit, and instead pulled out black pants a black tee shirt instead. Maybe since he was becoming a ninja, some change was in order as well.

Digging around further in his closet, Naruto pulled out an old grey vest that was similar to the Konoha chuunin vest. Looking at the new outfit, Naruto felt that it was missing something. Not sure what could be missing, Naruto put the thought aside as he instead headed into the shower, sighing blissfully as the hot water hit his body.

Ruefully, he left the shower and put on his new outfit, and looked in the mirror to see if he could figure out what was missing. Realizing it immediately, Naruto realized that he had nothing on his forehead, his usual goggles were missing and for the first time his hair was unrestricted. 'I kind of look a lot older with my bangs just slightly in my eyes.'

Looking over the rest of the outfit, Naruto felt that the black and grey was too drab and dull, and dug further into his closet, trying to find something to add a little _something_ to the wardrobe change. Finding what he was looking for after only a few more minutes, Naruto found a red sash that the Hokage had given him to cheer him up after he had failed the academy for the third time, and looped it around his waist.

Looking at himself one last time, Naruto found himself satisfied with his improvised wardrobe change, and taking a second to straighten out the sash, Naruto checked his clock. 'Has it really already been 45 minutes since Iruka got here? I might as well look at some of things that I copied from the Scroll of Seals before I go to the meeting.'

Pulling out a piece of paper that was hidden inside of an old academy textbook, Naruto looked at the first page of information that had been copied down form the scroll of seals. When Naruto had copied everything down, he was in such a hurry that he had not really thought about anything he had seen, instead opting to quickly copy it all down.

Looking at the paper, Naruto found instructions to learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Reading a little bit further, Naruto found a warning saying that it was dangerous to try to perform the Shadow Clone Jutsu unless you had a lot of chakra. Reading a little bit further, Naruto found a note stating that the Shadow Clones had a tactical use for reconnaissance due to anything that the Shadow Clone does or sees is transferred back to the caster upon the dispelling of the shadow clone.

Throwing caution to the wind, Naruto decided that it would be worth it to learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu, since he could never do the regular Clone Jutsu. Seeing the hand signs that were required, Naruto got to work. Time flew by as Naruto worked away at the Shadow Clone Jutsu, and as over an hour and a half went by, Naruto didn't even notice.

Author's Note

So sorry for those that want a new chapter for one of my other stories, but I will write what I feel like when I am hit by inspiration, and I am still in a planning stage for where I want to go with Drop Your Mask, and I am actually making a new story that will basically be a revamped version of Konoha's Swordsman that has the essence of Konoha's Swordsman, but starts from a different beginning. I actually have two more chapters of Apprenticed to a Shadow already written and I will be posting them over the next few days, probably on Friday and Sunday.


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